After PlayStation Home was delayed for the second time back in April, Sony promised that the closed beta will be extended to allow more people to participate and generate feedback to improve the service. Sony has revealed that the US expansion the closed beta will begin soon, though no exact date has been given. Japan is also prepping to expand the beta later this month, adding 10,000 new users to the service. Japanese users can apply via the PlayStation Store.

If you want to apply for the Japanese Beta, head over to the Japanese PlayStation Store and simply download the 277KB file. You have until August 11th 2008 to apply, after which registrations will be closed. Unfortunately, we do not know Japanese so we cannot translate the text is the screenshots above and below. You can learn how to create a Japanese PSN Account here.

[Guide: How to Create a Japanese PlayStation Network Account]

The trophy patch for Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune has officially been released in Europe and North America. The game will feature a total of 48 trophies including the Platinum Trophy, which can be obtained once all other trophies have been unlocked. Currently, Uncharted is the only game currently available where the Platinum trophy can be unlocked. The trophies have been built into the game’s Medal system, so if you have already unlocked all the medals you will have no problem in unlocking the trophies.

Please note that trophies are not retroactive so you will have to play the game again in order to unlock them. If you have’t got a copy of Uncharted yet, what better time to pick one up, even more so as it is a PS3 Platinum Title. The following trophies can be unlocked:

• Bronze Trophies:
  • First Treasure – Find 1 treasure
  • Beginner Fortune Hunter – Find 5 treasures
  • Novice Fortune Hunter – Find 10 treasures
  • Enthusiast Fortune Hunter – Find 15 treasures
  • Intermediate Fortune Hunter – Find 20 treasures
  • Skilled Fortune Hunter – Find 25 treasures
  • Proficient Fortune Hunter – Find 30 treasures
  • Advanced Fortune Hunter – Find 35 treasures
  • Professional Fortune Hunter – Find 40 treasures
  • Senior Fortune Hunter – Find 45 treasures
  • Expert Fortune Hunter – Find 50 treasures
  • Crack Fortune Hunter – Find 55 treasures
  • Relic Finder – Find the strange relic
  • Brutal Brawler – Kill five enemies with a brutal combo
  • Steel Fist – Kill five enemies with a single punch, after softening them up with gunfire
  • Headshot Expert – Kill five enemies in a row with headshots
  • 10 Headshots – Kill 10 enemies with headshots
  • 30 Headshots – Kill 30 enemies with headshots
  • Dyno-Might! – Kill 3 enemies with a single explosion
  • Expert Dyno-Might – Kill 3 enemies with a single explosion 5 times
  • Run-and-Gunner – Kill 20 enemies using firearms without aiming with L1
  • Hangman – Kill 10 enemies by aiming while hanging from a ledge
  • Grenade Hangman – Kill 10 enemies with grenades by aiming while hanging from a ledge
  • 50 Kills: PM – 9mm – Kill 50 enemies with the PM – 9m
  • 50 Kills: 92FS – 9mm – Kill 50 enemies with the 92FS – 9mm
  • 50 Kills: Micro – 9mm – Kill 50 enemies with the Micro – 9mm
  • 20 Kills: Wes – 44 – Kill 20 enemies with the Wes – 44
  • 20 Kills: Desert – 5 – Kill 20 enemies with the Desert – 5
  • 30 Kills: MP40 – Kill 30 enemies with the MP40
  • 50 Kills: AK-47 – Kill 50 enemies with the AK-47
  • 50 Kills: M4 – Kill 50 enemies with the M4
  • 30 Kills: Dragon Sniper – Kill 30 enemies with the Dragon Sniper
  • 50 Kills: Moss – 12 – Kill 50 enemies with the Moss – 12
  • 50 Kills: SAS – 12 – Kill 50 enemies with the SAS – 12
  • 30 Kills: M79 – Kill 30 enemies with the M79
  • 20 Kills: Mk-NDI – Kill 20 enemies with Mk-NDI grenades
  • Charted! – Easy – Finish the game in Easy Mode
• Silver Trophies
  
  • Master Fortune Hunter – Find 60 treasures
  • Brutal Slugger – Kill 20 enemies with a brutal combo
  • Brutal Expert – Kill five enemies in a row with a brutal combo
  • Stealth Attacker – Kill 20 enemies melee-attacking from behind
  • Steel Fist Expert – Kill 5 enemies in a row with a single punch after weakening them with gunfire
  • 100 Headshots – Kill 100 enemies with headshots
  • Survivor – Kill 50 enemies in a row without dying
  • Charted! – Normal – Finish the game in Normal Mode
• Gold Trophies:
  • Charted! – Hard – Finish the game in Hard Mode
  • Charted! – Crushing – Finish the game in Crushing Mode

As you are aware, the PSP scene has really died down in the last few months. We less and less things for us to report on, we have decided to delay the next issue of the XTREME PSP Magazine until we have enough content to report on. There is plenty of PlayStation 3 content for us to report on but as the magazine is mainly a PSP mag, we want to ensure there is enough PSP content covered for readers who don’t own a PS3.

We don’t have a ETA on when the next issue will be out but we will keep you posted on our website. As for PSP M4M Mag, it’s still on schedule for launch later this month. We’ve got great content in the upcoming issue including the Red Bull Air Race London and the British International Motor Show.

The PlayStation Video Store doesn’t have a fixed weekly update slot so you should really be checking the store everyday for new content. Grace Chen, Senior Manager of the PlayStation Store, has posted a PlayStation.Blog post detailing the new content available. The first update for August adds a number of new TV series downloads as feature films. Since the launch of the video store last month, hundreds of videos have been uploaded to the store for purchase and rental. You can check out what’s new below.

TV:

• Everest: Beyond the Limit
• Family Guy
• Gene Simmons: Family Jewels
• How I Met Your Mother
• It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia
• LA Ink
• Land Of The Giants
• Miami Ink
• My Name is Earl
• Mythbusters
• Prison Break
• The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack
• Trinity Blood
• Weaponology
• Xam’d: Lost Memories (There’s a brand new episode every Tuesday!)

Movies:

• Fool’s Gold
• King Arthur
• Reign of Fire
• Stay Alive
• The Eye
• The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep
• Unforgiven

As you may already be aware, the Video Store is currently only available to the US.

Life with PlayStation is a service that brings you live news, live webcam feeds and weather among other things on your PS3, originally announced at Sony’s Strategic meeting in Tokyo back in June. Earlier last month at E3 Jack Tretton, CEO of SCEA, announced that the service would be available for the PS3 at the end of July. Noam Rimon, Senior Development Manager for SCEA, has announced on the PlayStation.Blog that the service will now be available in August.

The delay in deploying the service is "due to a few procedural matters," according to Rimon. The complete blog post is included below.

PlayStation.Blog post by Noam Rimon:

"We’d like to provide a quick update on Life with PlayStation for PLAYSTATION 3. We know many of you are eager to try out the new service for yourself, but you’ll have to hold tight. Due to a few procedural matters, the new service will make its way to PlayStation fans in August.

Rest assured, Life with PlayStation will be a service that introduces a new way to interact with your PS3. By bringing information from around the world into your living room, Life with PlayStation will offer a variety of interactive content and channels on a visually stunning worldwide map interface.

We’re focused on continuously expanding the world of PS3 through new services and hope to do just that with the upcoming launch of Life with PlayStation."

A big update for the US PlayStation Store this week as the last update for July goes live. The US have received three new playable demos and a range of new game add-on content. PixelJunk Eden is now available to purchase from both store (£4.99/$9.99). Both stores have also received a range of videos and wallpaper. The US store has also received Killzone 2 and PixelJunk Eden XMB themes and a music pack for Soul Calibur IV.

European Additions:

• Demos
  
  • PixelJunk Eden
• Downloadable games
  
  • PixelJunk Eden (£4.99)
• Videos
  
  • E3 – PSP Compilation Trailer
  • Prince Of Persia E3 Gameplay
  • The Last Guy Trailer
  • Linger in Shadows Trailer
• Wallpapers
  
  • Bionic Commando Rearmed wallpaper (15)

US Additions:

• Demos
  • LEGO Indiana Jones The Original Adventures
  • Madden NFL 09
  • FaceBreaker
• Downloadable games
  
  • PixelJunk Eden ($9.99)
• Game add-on Content
  
  • Soul Calibur IV: Customization Equipment 1 ($1.49)
  • Rock Band:
    • Yomp by thenewno2 ($0.99)
    • This is It by Staind ($ 1.99)
    • TheySay by Scars on Broadway ($1.99)
    • Electric Crown by Testament ($1.99).
• Videos
  
  • The Last Guy Trailer
  • Vampire Rain Altered Species Trailer 3
  • Beijing 2008 Track Trailer
  • Beijing 2008 Swimming Trailer
  • Bionic Commando Rearmed: The Making Of – Part 2
  • AST Dew Tour – BMX Progression
  • AST Dew Tour – BMX Rewind
  • AST Dew Tour – FMX Unleashed
  • AST Dew Tour – Skate Highlights
• Themes
  
  • Killzone 2 Theme
  • PixelJunk Eden Theme
• Wallpapers
  
  • Siren: Blood Curse Wallpaper (2)
  • Soul Calibur IV Wallpaper (2)
  • Street Fighter IV: Summer 08 Wallpaper
• Music
  
  • Soul Calibur IV: Downloadable Music (17 individual tracks at $0.99 each, full set $14.99)

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s (SCEE) Darren Cairns and Liam Wickham are in the forefront of PlayStation Home development. While in a developer conference in Brighton, the two took the chance to clarify a common but wrong notion about Sony’s virtual world to come. Cairns and Wickham have stated that Home is not for social networking, but for gaming. "Home is not a social network – it’s focused on games. It’s a visual representation of the PlayStation community," they said in the conference.

The focus, they say, is on creating a virtual representation of the PS3’s online community. More than socialization, Home is geared towards enhancing online play and other facets of PS3 gaming. Home is a service for starting sessions of online play, with features like virtual lobbies and match setup screens while inside Home and the ability to launch games themselves from within the virtual world. Once the game is over, players are returned to the virtual world where they can discuss the events of the last game played.

The closed beta will be extended as new features are added, and the open beta launch is still scheduled for later this year.

PlayStation 3 Firmware 2.42 is now available to download. The official announcement states that the update “improves the playback quality of some PlayStation 3 and PlayStation format software.” The official changelog states the same things, though users have been reporting that Life With PlayStation is now available too. Needless to say, some of you may decide to hold off updating your consoles to avoid the problems that firmware 2.40 caused.

We have yet to update our console, but once we do we will report any additional changed to the system software. If you decide to update your console, we recommend backing up your console before hand (just in case).

UPDATE:

PlayStation With Life was announced at E3 to be launching by the end of July, but was not included with PS3 firmware v2.42. Over at the PlayStation.Blog, Noam Rimon, Senior Development Manager for SCEA, has said that PlayStation With Life will be released in August. The delay is due to “a few procedural matters”.